Skip to main content

QE II

An amusing occurrence on the bus this morning that I thought I'd share. The driver had stopped to let some people on, and called out to the passengers "If you look down the river, there is a lovely view of the QE II under the bridge".

Now, she was correct, there was a lovely view of the familiar (and still striking) QE II framed elegantly between the pylons of the Tasman Bridge on a slightly gloomy Wednesday morning. It was well worth the observation and I'm glad that she pointed it out.

However, the entertaining part was the absolute lack of recognition among the school kids that dominate the trip. The driver's remark sparked a frenzied debate about what exactly it was she was talking about. One guy (maybe thirteen) reckoned that it was "something foreign" (perhaps hearing 'keweetoo' and mistaking it for a Finnish football team). Another girl thought that it might be an expensive Italian car. It interests me that they didn't seem to be aware of the meaning of 'QE II', to the point that they eventually concluded that she "must be talking about that little ship over there". I'd wager that most wouldn't know who QE II is, let alone what QE II is. It just didn't seem to mean anything to them at all.

Not that I can blame them I guess, it is a hell of a lot smaller vessel than something like the Sapphire Princess and its ilk who've visited Hobart over the past Summer.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...
5 comments
Read more

There was nothing left. No reason, no conscience, no understanding; even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, good or evil, right or wrong.

Here is a self portrait. I’m calling it Portrait of a lady in a dirty window . Shocking, isn’t it? However, it is apt! Samhain , Nos Galan Gaeaf , Hop-tu-Naa , All Saints , All Hallows , Hallowmas , Hallowe'en or HALLOWEEN . It’s Theme Thursday and we’re talking about the festivals traditionally held at the end of the harvest season. Huh? No wonder Australians have trouble with the concept of HALLOWEEN. For the record, in my thirty-two L O N G years on the planet, I can’t say I’ve ever seen ghosts ‘n goblins, trick ‘n treaters or Michael Myers stalking Tasmania’s streets at the end of October. [That said, I did once see a woman as pale as a ghost turning tricks that looked like Michael Myers in late November one time.] Despite the best efforts of Hollywood, sitcoms, and innumerable companies; it seems Australians are impervious to the [ahem] charms of a corporatized variant of a celebration of the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darke...
38 comments
Read more

In dreams begin responsibilities.

A life at sea, that's for me, only I just don't have the BREAD. That's right, Theme Thursday yet again and I post a photo of a yacht dicking about in Bass Strait just off Wynyard. The problem is, I am yet again stuck at work, slogging away, because I knead need the dough . My understanding is that it is the dough that makes the BREAD. And it is the BREAD that buys the yacht. On my salary though, I will be lucky to have enough dough or BREAD for a half dozen dinner rolls. Happy Theme Thursday people, sorry for the rush.
36 comments
Read more